Success in Italy with the first IndyCar engine fire-up and Exige
R-GT Rally shakedown

Whilst most sensible people prepare to wind down
for the festive period, the hard working Lotus
Motorsport team are busy celebrating the fruits
of their labour over the past 12 months
following the first successful engine fire up in
the Lotus IndyCar chassis AND the first proper
Exige R-GT rally car shakedown all within the
space of 24 hours.

The first official Lotus IndyCar engine fire up
in new car took place on 22nd December at
Dallara’s headquarters in Varano Melegari, Palma
under the watchful eye of Group Lotus Director
of Motorsport Claudio Berro and technicians from
the team. Pleased with the overall results, the
team have now prepared the engine and car for
shipment to the US where full testing will begin
in January.

Heading north to Turin, the Exige R-GT, the
Rally version of the new Exige S, took centre
stage with a quick track shakedown for the first
time in full Rally specification. The car
handled exactly as expected and the team were
delighted with the results. Testing will
continue in the new year ahead of the start of
the 2012 FIA World Rally Championship season
where the Exige will contend the FIA GT category
on asphalt at events in Monte Carlo, Tour de
Corse and San Remo.

Claudio Berro said: “The fire up in the car went
really well, there were no nasty surprises and I
think our partners are going to be very happy
with the results. It was only October last year
that we announced that we would become an
IndyCar engine supplier and just 12 months on,
we had an all new Lotus engine and three teams
signed up - Bryan Herta Autosport, Dreyer and
Reinbold Racing, and HVM Racing. We’ve still got
a lot of work to do ahead of the start of the
2012 IZOD IndyCar season but so far I’m very
encouraged by what I see.

“And as for the Rally car, when you consider
that we’ve only began working on this car in
July, I think what we’ve achieved in that time
has been incredible. For me the Exige S makes
the perfect GT rally car, it has an awesome
3.5-litre, supercharged engine, and we’ve
managed to balance the weight perfectly to meet
the minimum weight regulations. The shakedown
today (23rd December) has only made us even more
excited to show off the car in true race form
early next year – I think we’re doing the Lotus
motorsport pedigree proud.”